Paranormal Investigation
by Reyna Elizabeth Masters
Summary: Danny Fenton and his friends and family take a vacation to a city with a hidden name. Danny could manage his secret before, but can he keep his ghost-half out from under the watchful eyes of Dib Membrane? MUCH better writing if you can get past the first few chapters... I apologize... - - Rated T for the paranoid critics out there.
1. Vacation

**Chapter One**

**Vacation**

"Danny, get in here! Your mother and I need to tell you something!"

Danny Fenton, a young raven-haired teen, shuffled into the kitchen of FentonWorks, his home. _What now? _He thought. _I had to pause my game with Tucker for this! _He sat in one of kitchen chairs, slouching a little, next to his older sister, Jazz. Danny's mom, Maddie, and dad, Jack, were standing next to each other, grinning.

"Your father and I have decided to surprise you this year with a Spring Break vacation to a town called…" A garbage truck backed up in front of the Fenton's house, drowning out the elusive name of the city they would be traveling to. "…in Michigan!" Maddie finished. Danny and Jazz tried to look enthusiastic about the trip, with Jazz looking slightly more convincing.

"Yes, we're going on a little road trip in the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!" Jack exclaimed.

"You mean the RV, right?" Jazz asked.

"Yes, yes, the RV, but it's more fun if you say the whole thing! I'll go get the suitcases I pre-packed for the trip!" Jack ran excitedly for the bedrooms, with Maddie close behind him. Danny and Jazz exchanged glances one reserved only for their parent's (but mostly Jack's) antics. "This is gonna be a loooong vacation," Danny sighed.

* * *

Five minutes later, Danny, Tucker, Sam, and Jazz sat in the back of GAV/RV, while Jack and Maddie argued up front on whether or not Michigan was Northwest or Southeast from them, Jack being on the Southeast side of the disagreement.

"Hey, Danny, cheer up! At least your parents let us come." Sam said, noticing her friend's blank out the window look.

"Yeah!" Tucker added, brightening. "I even brought some old DSi's that I rigged to play online games… so technically, they're DSTucker's." Danny grinned. Tucker did always have a knack for machines… just not girls.

"So, where are we headed to, anyway?" Sam questioned.

"Mom said it was someplace called…" A motorcycle gang roared by, covering the unknown city's title yet again. "…in Michigan." Danny said in a bored tone. Then he blinked. "Waaaaait a minnit. That's the second time it's happened. Whenever someone tries to say the town's name, something loud covers it up…"

"Really? I want to try!" Tucker exclaimed. He opened his mouth, drawing in a breath, and… _SCREEEEEEECH! CRASHHHHHHH! _Two semi-trucks with _Eduardo's Tacos _and_ Crispee Chickee Chicken _printed on the sides crashed into each other. The occupants of the backseat stared in awe, horror, and possibly hunger. The other three teens turned their wide-eyed gazes to Tucker. "Maybe Tucker shouldn't try to say that city's name," Jazz suggested sheepishly.

"If that's what happens when Tucker does it, I'd hate to see what happens when _Sam_ tries to do it!" Danny shivered.

* * *

Danny glided through the Ghost Zone. He was in his human form, so he was not exactly sure how he was flying. He looked down at himself. _Okay, _he thought. _I'm drifting in the Ghost Zone, in my human form, dressed in my ghost self's costume. _Quickly, Danny stuck his arms out, staring intently to where his hands should have been. He sighed in relief. "Just a dream," he whispered, releasing a breath he hadn't noticed he had been holding. Danny was grateful for Clockwork's advice on normal dreams and dreams that could kill. He shook his head in amazement at the time ghost's knowledge, even though it made a little bit of sense. The halfa floated onwards until Walker's Prison loomed , Walker himself appeared, towering over the half ghost like a skyscraper. "DANNY PHANTOM," the warden's voice boomed. "YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED YOUR SENTENCE OF ONE THOUSAND YEARS IN MY PRISON! NOW YOU SHALL FINISH YOUR TERM, OR FACE OBLIVION!" Danny tried to dodge the massive, pale hand coming for him, but, like in all nightmares, he was frozen in place. Walker snatched him out of the ectoplasmic air, throwing him hard into the prison's courtyard, where shadows lurked, waiting for the teen to get up. Danny struggled to rise, but felt as if his body were made of lead. He checked his hands again. Still nonexistent. He looked up, and as he did so his eyes widened with terror. All his enemies, all the ghosts he ever fought surrounded him, chanting his name. "Danny. Danny. Danny. Danny! Danny! DANNY! _DANNY_! _DANNY_!"

Danny's eyelids opened to his sister, Jazz, trying to shake him awake. "Danny! Danny, wake up!"

"Wha- whazz goin on?" The ghost boy asked groggily. Jazz smiled. "Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty! We're here."

* * *

**Hey guys! Sorry my first chapter's so short, but I do like writing cliffhangers, ***_**laughs maniacally* **_**and those are only fun for the author. Also, this is my very first story, so any human pig-smellies out there who flamed, say, my brother, jsun15, but haven't written **_**any**_** stories for the **_**ten years **_**they've been on FanFiction, can just poke a bear with a stick. BTW, the other reason this chapter's so short is because jsun15 was threatening to watch Doctor Who without me. Ciao!**


	2. Observations

**Disclaimer that I forgot to do last chapter: I do not own Danny Phantom or Invader Zim; all kudos go to Butch Hartman and Jhonen C. Vasquez.**

Chapter Two

Patience

Dib woke up to his father, Professor Membrane, squealing like a fangirl. Rubbing his eyes, he threw off the blanket and shoved his large glasses up his nose. Dib stretched and threw on a light blue smiley face t-shirt, black skinny jeans, black leather boots, and his trademark black trench coat. After briefly checking his impossible gravity-defying lock of hair, he slid down the stair railing and into the kitchen. Gaz, Dib's sister, was sitting across from the professor and hacking at a Breakfast Chunk with a spoon. Professor Membrane quickly turned to Dib. "Guess what, son!" gushed the professor. "Some scientists are coming to our little town for a vacation!" He squealed again, still sounding like a 1D fan. Dib took the newspaper from his dad's gloved hands and read the article.

_SCIENTISTS VACATION IN _(unfortunately, the town's name was smudged by Gaz's breakfast milk)_! Local reporter Pierce Lightning discovered the arrival of Jack and Maddie Fenton, who are coming to our small Michigan town from Amity Park, Ohio, with their two kids and family friends, Jazz, Danny, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley. These two intelligent adults are researchers in the… More on VACATION, section 2F._

Dib sighed, flipping to the page indicated by the pitiful newspaper. Once again, his father was too excited to bother reading the rest of the story. He quickly scanned the page.

_…__paranormal. They are investigating a string of phantom photo-ops near Lake Michigan that appeared on the internet a few days ago. Mrs. Fenton has announced that she and her ghost-hunting husband are more than happy to answer any questions asked about their work. She also informed Lightning that while she and Mr. Fenton were out catching creeps, the teens that tagged along would need a guide around town._

Now it was Dib's turn to squeal. Fortunately, he held it in, or Gaz would have smacked him upside the head with her rock-hard block of compressed cereal. Dib, with newspaper in hand, tore down the hallway and out the door, skidding on the pavement. Professor Membrane sighed, turning to Gaz. "Have I ever told you about when your brother went insane?"

"Yes," she replied threateningly, then disappeared upstairs, GameSlave in hand.

**Hiiiii! Sorry about the case of the missing chapter! I don't know what happened to the rest of it, so I had to type it again. -_- Stupid computer. Anywho (thanks Major Monogram!), this is mostly why my third chapter was late. All flames here will be used for my Flaming Ninja Stars of DOOM! Also, I may or may not have some **_**genius **_**cameos. Hint hint. See ya!**


	3. Suspicion

**Hello, random people that will actually read this! Sorry about the late third chapter, but my sister, CrystalMoon17, forces me to write the Evil chapters for her story, Good and Evil: Generation Five. Also, I got an Animal Jam (super cool site you should check out) membership followed by major writer's block. Another thing you should check out; Ghost of Arkham City, by jsun25. Anyway, all kudos for Invader Zim and Danny Phantom go to the amazing Jhonen C. Vasquez and the magnificent Butch Hartman.**

**Chapter Three**  
**Suspicion**

Danny stretched his muscles, which were stiff from sleeping in the cramped GAV/RV. He looked out the window at the small town, noticing that it looked mostly brown, gray, and a sickly green. When his parents stepped out of the large vehicle, a reporter that looked surprisingly like Lance Thunder rushed up. Danny watched as his mom exchanged a few words with the man, who then left as quickly as he came. The teen's parents climbed back into the Ghost Assault Vehicle, and they took off to the luxury hotel, which turned out to be a very big house. Danny noticed the strange little house squeezed between the "hotel" and some apartments. It was lime green with a purple roof, and had plastic puffer fish on sticks, a few garden gnomes, and a flag that said "I Heart Earth" on it in the front yard. He also noticed the large metal tubes that stretched to the buildings on either side.

"Geez," he mumbled to himself. "That looks like something the Box Ghost would draw…"

oOo

Dib dashed down the street, struggling to keep up with the huge (and very fast) camper. With his eyes glued to the moving behemoth, he forgot to watch where he was going. Dib slammed into something that felt very, very solid and covered in fabric. He looked up to find a large, no, gigantic Eurasian-looking man glaring fiercely back at him. Dib noted the equally huge muscles that covered the man. Next to the jolly giant was a fifteen-year-old-looking boy with jet black hair, his eyebrows raised. Both were wearing expensive-looking suits, although the younger one seemed to be in charge. Dib mumbled a quick "Sorry" and sprinted away as quickly as possible. There was something about the man that unnerved him. Dib shivered and kept running, finally catching up with the Fentons. Suddenly, he froze. "You've got to be kidding me…"

oOo  
The first thing Danny noticed about the cul-de-sac was the shady-looking kid running up to them. The halfa's curiosity rose higher when he saw the kid stop and look from the RV to the strange-looking house next to their "hotel". Then the kid shook his head, as if to clear it, and ran right up to Danny's parents, pulling something long and shiny out of his black trench coat without slowing down. Danny tensed, but relaxed, exhaling as he realized it was just a pen. Trench Coat looked at him with an analytical gaze that made the feel uncomfortable, then turned back to the ghost hunters. The halfa decided it was time to help Jazz and his friends unpack.

oOo  
Dib shuddered, throwing images of human autopsy out of his head. He continued to run towards Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, pulling a silver pen out of his pocket. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Danny (at least, he thought it was Danny) flinch, his muscles tightening. Dib wondered why anyone would do that, if he was just retreiving… He remembered that his pen was silver. _Interesting,_ Dib thought._ My pen must look like a knife from the distance..._ _Oh well. I still need to ask the Fentons about their work._ Dib turned back to the two adults, yanked a notebook out of his jacket, and bombarded them with questions. "Is it true that you two are paranormal investigators?" he asked.

Mrs. Fenton, or Maddie, as she introduced herself, smiled. "Of course! That's we told the reporter. Right Jack?"

Jack snapped out of a daydream. "FUDGE! I mean, uh, yes, Maddie!" He looked around nervously.

Dib scribbled in his notebook. "Okay. Do you have any chairs in your RV?"

"Yes, but why would you need to know that?" Maddie asked, confused.

Dib looked up from his notes. "We're going to be here a while."

oOo  
Danny watched Dib's interview from his room's only window. The rest of the "hotel" felt a bit like a greasy Walker's prison, but the bedrooms were sweet. Danny and Tucker's bedroom was space-themed with two of everything: pencil thin laptops humming quietly on sleek steel desks, the chairs behind them made of painted black metal (plus they spun in circles), NASA posters on the walls, white carpet, brushed steel walls, and an Xbox One gaming system with wireless black controllers. Even the beds were cool. They were both desk-beds, with the beds on top shaped like a space shuttle, and the desks below encased in a metal shell. You could enter a password into the door, so that no one could use the desk unless you typed the code.

"Dude!" Tucker exclaimed when he saw the room. "This is awesome!" He set a password for his room-inside-a-room, then smirked. "I dare you to figure this out. You'll never guess it in a million years!" Danny rolled his eyes and walked over to Tucker's desk bed door, scanning the letters and numbers on the pad. "Go ahead, try! There are ten numbers and twenty-six letters, so the amount of combinations you could possibly enter are almost-" He was cut off by the hydraulic hiss of the door opening. Tucker's mouth dropped open. "H-how did you…?"

Danny grinned mischievously. "Tucker, you'll have to set a better password than 'STAR'. Sam and I both know." Tucker folded his arms and grumbled something that sounded like amythests and... oceans? Danny chose to ignore him and noticing the Xbox, almost literally floated over to it. His tech obsessed friend joined him. The boys looked at each other, thinking the same thoughts. They jumped into the black game chairs and out of Michigan.

**Hey guys! I hope you liked my longest chapter so far. Also, if you don't know what a desk bed is, it's like a bunk bed, but the bottom bunk is replaced with a desk area. Whew… that bedroom description made my fingers hurt… anyway, stay tuned for Chapter Four: Investigations… otherwise you'll either be sharp or flat (I'm talking to YOU trombones)! Anyway, I'm hoping this third chapter will be my luckiest one, with three being the Phantom Number. To sum the whole thing up, you could either ignore my ranting or check my bff, Phantom J. Ryder's, story. It's called Follow in my Footsteps, and it's REALLY good!**


	4. Investigations

**¡Hola amigos! Sorry about the late-ish chapters, but with school starting I've been a bit out of it. I've been reading the Artemis Fowl series, and I'm almost done with it. I would recommend it to pretty much everyone I know! It's fantastic! Anyway, blah blah disclaimers blah blah blah I WISH I owned Danny Phantom and Invader Zim, but I don't. So there. Well, here goes nothing. Geronimo!**

**Chapter 4**

**Investigations**

Dib dashed back to his house, careful not to bump into any well-dressed people. He shivered as he remembered the vampire-like gaze of the teenager. It had seemed somewhat aloof, yet curious at the same time. The PI shook his head and kept running, keeping his thoughts focused on his notes.

oOo

Next to the "hotel", in the heart of a dimly-lit underground lab, Zim sat at his supercomputer and cackled malevolently. "So," he sneered. "Paranormal investigators? I must show them who the true ruler of this filthy human city is, ONCE AND FOR ALL!" The evil laugh that followed Zim's statement echoed through the subterranean base, as did a high-pitched scream.

"YAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY! WE'RE GONNA TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"

oOo

Danny and Tucker met Sam outside of the "hotel", talking excitedly about their amazing rooms. "Your room is nothing compared to mine," Sam said, smirking. "Everything is black, and the wolf sconces on the walls have purple fire." She grinned at the thought of her Victorian room with its vampirish décor. "My windows are covered completely with black velvet curtains, and the only clock is an obsidian sundial." Sam sighed contentedly, feeling completely comfortable in the drab gray atmosphere of the town. She loosely held a copy of the _E__dgar Allen Poe Complete Book of Poetry_ in her hand.

Danny wasn't so relaxed. "Don't you guys think it's a little weird that all our rooms fit our personalities perfectly? I mean, the walls of Jazz's room are completely lined with bookshelves, and there's a desk with different tests you can take." He rolled his eyes. Mom and Dad's room has everything but the ectoplasmic sink for ghost hunting.  
Tucker nodded, but kept to himself. He was still thinking about the sweet graphics of the round of Call of Duty Ghost he and Danny had played. Suddenly, he remembered the picture of the Box Ghost they had taped over the soldier's face on the cover, and had to bite back laughter.

"Aw, come on you guys, lighten up. It's only day one." Sam elbowed both boys in the ribs, accidentally dropping her book. She stopped to pick it up, and the two boys waited for her to do so. When she straightened, however, the trio saw two figures running down the street from the left. As they got closer, the three teens saw that the figures were two girls their age.

The first one looked a lot like Danny, with a white streak cutting a jagged path through her raven hair. She was wearing what looked like Danny's t-shirt (with violet instead of red) and jeans, purple once again replacing red on her converse. The second girl looked like Tucker, her dark, braided hair drumming against her back under a thick red hairband. She was wearing clothes similar to the now confused African American boy.

As they ran by, they simultaneously shouted, "Hi great-grandpa bye great-grandpa fighting Box Lunch can't talk gotta run!" Both girls jumped through a green portal, closely followed by an angry Box Lunch.

"What in the name of- is Box Lunch a teenager?!" Danny stared wide-eyed at the entire scenario, and in a flash of green light, the girls and ghost were gone. "Well," he exhaled. "This town just got a whole lot more interesting."

**Bonjour! Sorry about that mini-cliffhanger. No, wait. No I'm not. You could probably jump off that one and not get hurt, but it would make more sense if you read Phantom J. Ryder's _Follow in my Footsteps_ (which you should have already). Anyway, I'm really really sorry about this super-late chapter, but school has me pinned and I was almost down for the count. Also, I apologize for the shortness of the chapter! See you next chapter! (If my math teacher will let me…)**


	5. Earless

**Okay, so that wasn't much of a cliffhanger. It was actually meant to be a cameo, so don't start conspiracies… unless you read Follow in my Footsteps by Phantom J. Ryder. Also, I'm SUPER ULTRA ARTEMIS FOWL FANGIRLING, but only because the fifth chapter is, of course, the one that takes me an eternity to write. Anyway, sorry about the Chapter That Took Forever, blah blah blah, I don't own DP or IZ (sniff sniff), lah dee dah fifth chapter go!**

**Chapter Five**  
**Earless**

The Phantom Trio, after recovering from their futuristic experience, continued walking down the street. Danny was thinking about that white stripe in one of the girl's hair, what it meant, and why she looked so much like him. Tucker was pondering similar questions. _Why did they call Danny and me "great-grandpa"?_ the techno-geek wondered, gears in his head turning rapidly. _Were they from the future? Maybe _our_ future… _His thought bubble popped as Sam waved a hand in Danny's face and a book in his. The time problem would have to wait for another, well, time.

"Hellooo! Earth to boys!" she said. "Could you come back to the present here? I don't blame you for thinking about those two girls and Box Lunch, I mean, I know I would, but right now we have a bigger problem." She pointed to a small green kid in the distance. "Look. Notice anything strange, besides his olive green skin?"

Danny squinted at the figure. "Huh. That is strange." He blew a stray strand of hair out of his face.

"What?" Tucker asked.

Danny turned to him, eyebrow raised. "No ears."

**_Le line break_**

Zim marched down the street in a goofy mock-military fashion; his legs sticking out straight whenever he took a step. Then he saw the Fenton kid. Zim smiled toothily. "Perfect!" he said aloud. "Now is the time to exact a discipline on these 'paranormal investigators'. I will take out their filthy offspring, and, at the same time, wipe another human worm-baby from this planet!" The last part of his sentence was raised a bit too much in volume, and caused a small, bespectacled, black-haired kid sporting a bowtie to look at him funny. "What are you looking at, pig-smelly?" Zim snarled. The boy frowned and ran off. Zim snorted._ Humans_, he thought. _When will they learn that I am their true master?_

_**Ye olde line break**_

As the strange kid drew closer, Danny tensed slightly. This green midget had malice in his oddly square blue eyes, and was grinning with evil intent. When the half-pint person was only a few feet away from Danny, he stopped and spoke. "Greetings, earthling stink-worms! I am Zim; completely normal, one hundred percent human, and not threatening! I would have to be some kind of alien invader to lie about that." Zim smiled in a could-be-called-creepy way, waiting for the usual laughter. _Except_, Zim realized with alarm, _this tall human is not laughing._

Instead, Danny stepped forward, placing himself between Zim and his friends. He didn't like the way Zim had phrased that sentence; it reminded him too much of Vlad. Zim's feral grin dropped into a snarl. "Okay, human," he growled. "If you want to do this the hard way, we will!" Danny barely had time to check the street for people before Zim lunged at him. Thankfully, it was empty, and Danny morphed as Zim went directly through him, Sam, and Tucker. The two humans ran for cover, and the halfa turned to face his otherworldly opponent, who picked himself up and whirled around. "So," the alien began. "You're not quite human, are you?"

Danny laughed warily. "More than you'll ever be." Half-ghost and extraterrestrial charged towards each other, and the fight began.

_**El salto de linea**_

Dib heard the explosion when he was a block away from his house. He started running in the direction of the plume of smoke, and when he arrived, he had to pick his jaw up off the floor. Zim was fighting a ghost… _a ghost!_ The small scientist grinned. Christmas had come early this year. "Danny! Watch out!" a voice called. Dib turned to see two teenagers worriedly watching the battle. Dib ignored them and turned back to observe as the ghost boy launched a kick at Zim. It landed solidly on the side of his head, but Zim recovered quickly and attacked with his mechanical spider legs, swatting the ghost boy out of the air. The specter fired two green rays of ectoplasm at the alien, sending him flying down the street.

Dib scoffed. Zim was weak against this spirit. Suddenly, a flash of metal caught Dib's eye. He walked over to it, now seeing that it was a thermos of some sort. He uncapped it and looked inside. Empty. Then, out of nowhere, a voice behind him exclaimed, "BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST!" Just above Dib's head floated another ghost with blue skin wearing overalls and a knit cap. Dib jumped and out of instinct pointed the thermos at him, accidentally pressing a button on the side. The now screaming 'Box Ghost' was sucked into the thermos in a ray of blue light. A small blue wisp escaped the canister before Dib capped it. Then he smiled. _Helpful_, he thought.

_**La linerompo**_

Danny exhaled, breathing heavily. He glanced down the street to where his alien adversary lay unconscious, steel legs folded back into his Pak. Looking back up, he noticed a trickle of people inching curiously into the street, unaware of what happened. The ghost teen quickly flew invisibly into a nearby alley. He returned to the visible spectrum, but just as he was about to change back to his human form, he felt a blast of energy hit him in the back, and he realized he was being sucked into the Fenton Thermos. _But who…_ was his last scattered thought before his world went black.

Dib stepped out from the shadows, his smile widening. He laughed softly, knowing the whole scene had gone unnoticed by the two other teens. _You're mine, ghost boy._

**Hello, extremely patient readers! Thanks for tolerating the wait! Sorry it took so long, but I got the worst case of writer's block in the history of writer's block! Yes, this is a cliffhanger, and yes, you will survive. Also, the last line break is in Esperanto (thank you, Google Translate), and I'll be using it a lot. Ĝis venontfoje, miaj amikoj! P.S. Don't forget to check out my latest story, Rapid Eye Movement! (Note from the present: Rapid Eye Movement is under construction and will be coming out _after_ Beginnings.)**


	6. Fearless

**Hello, extremely patient (or not) readers! Welcome to the sixth chapter of Paranormal Investigation! Sorry about the slow writing of chapters, but with school back in motion and a Prezi project for my english teacher, I've been a more than a little preoccupied. At least this time you can blame Mr. Girau and The Giver. Just kidding! Maybe… A little…**  
**Anyway, back to the story!**

**Chapter Six**  
**Fearless**

"Danny? Danny!" Sam was beginning to worry. Danny should have been back by now. Where was he? The last thing Sam and Tucker had seen the ghost teen do was fly into an alley… _What if Danny had been - no, that's stupid,_ Sam thought._ He's way more careful than that. The only way he could have been caught was if he was knocked out first._ Tucker caught her attention, waving from a nearby alley. "Sam! Check this out!" She ran over to where Tucker was crouching, staring at something on the ground. "Remember that flash of blue light we saw?" he asked. Sam nodded, recalling the familiar burst of blue. Tucker shook his head, pointing to his PDA. "That wasn't Danny."  
"Oh my gosh," Sam gasped. Tucker had scanned the alley for ectoplasmic residue, and now the PDA was telling them that a ghost had recently been sucked into the Fenton Thermos. The two teens looked at each other, horrified. Sam recovered first. "Someone kidnapped Danny."

oOo

Danny stood alone in the Clocktower, wondering how he had gotten there. Suddenly, Clockwork, in his Present form, glided through one of the many time portals in the room. He smiled slightly as he saw Danny. "Glad you could make it," he said.  
"How did I get here?" Danny asked, confused. "I thought someone sucked me into the Fenton Thermos." Clockwork gestured to the ghost boy's hands with his staff, and the halfa looked down, still puzzled. He almost jumped when he saw that his hands weren't there. "So… I'm dreaming then."  
"Yes," Clockwork nodded. "But you must wake up now. The human boy is getting impatient."  
Danny turned to leave, but stopped, thinking. "Where did you come from? In time, I mean."

oOo

Danny woke with a gasp, sitting straight up. At least, he _tried_ to sit up. Assessing the situation, he glanced around the small gray room. No windows, one large metal door, a rectangular mirror (which he guessed was a one-way mirror), some equipment, a large lamp, and the big metal table he was currently secured to. At least his hands were down close to his sides this time. It felt less vulnerable, if that was even possible while being held captive. Danny's glowing gaze shifted as the large metal door opened and a small kid entered the room. He had a black trench coat, big round glasses, and an odd lightning bolt-like hairstyle on top of his head. "So," the kid began.  
"Buttons," Danny replied, obviously not intimidated, despite being nearly immobile.

The kid glared at him, annoyed. "No question about you being awake then," he adjusted the collar of his coat. "I'm surprised you haven't tried to free yourself already."

Danny shrugged. "No reason to, at least not at the moment. You really should have planned better, you know. If I get out of these metal bands"- he tilted his head towards his restrained arms and legs -"I could just phase out of the room." Then a thought hit him. "Wait… you're that kid who questioned my - the Fentons, weren't you? You're Dib!"  
"How did you know about that?" the kid, Dib, tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed.  
"Duh, I'm a ghost. Invisibility much?"  
"Actually, no. Some of us aren't so _lucky_, for lack of a better word."  
"I can see that. What do you want from me?"  
Dib grinned. "Just some answers. If you don't try to escape, I won't have to use a bouquet of these." He pulled a dark red rose with a darker purple stem out of his coat.  
Danny recoiled. "Blood blossom," he grimaced suddenly feeling nauseous. He remembered all too well what the flower could do to a ghost. "Alright, Dib, I'll answer your questions, just keep that away from me."  
Dib put the blood blossom back into his trench coat, and his smile widened. "Glad we could come to an agreement." He pressed a button on the wall, and the table Danny was bound to turned into a chair, although it still had the same restraints. "Now, about the invisibility…"

**MWA HA HA HAAAA! Why am I better at writing ghost questioning than the most anti-climactic fight ever in chapter 5? Oh well. Just tell me you got the "so" "buttons" thing. You know, so buttons, sew buttons…? I know, it's cheesy, but my dad does that to me all the time… _all the time_. Oh, and did you catch that cameo in Danny's dream? Leave a review if you did! :P Also, to be totally annoying, check out my YouTube channel… when I actually post a video. I'll let you know when I do. I'm CAPS LOCK, btw. See you in a hopefully longer chapter!**


	7. Invisible

**OKAY! I am now having Ms. Phantom J. Ryder as my unofficial betareader for Rapid Eye Movement, my other (but still really cool) story. Sorry about the short chapters! I promise to lengthen them in future chapters, including this one. Thanks to Vbajor10 for the suggestion, but I'm not sure I'll write something like that… unless it's a humorous take on Fanning the Flames where Ember's Love Chord backfires. Oh well! Time for another chapter of PI with a rhyming titles and a play on words!**

Chapter Seven

Invisible

"So, what you're saying is that if ghosts concentrate their energy, they can make other things intangible?" Dib questioned, jotting every bit of information down in a notebook. Danny found himself a little bit pleased that the kid was so intrigued by ghosts, mainly because Dib wasn't trying to kill him the rest of the way. Somewhere, off in the distance, a doorbell rang. Dib frowned, pressing a button on his pocket remote. A screen popped out of the ceiling, and the human boy poked it until it showed them main door. "Oh, shoot. They found me!" he shouted.

"Who found you? Why would someone look for you?" Danny inquired. Dib showed him the screen, and Danny's eyes grew wide. "Let me get this straight," the halfa began. "The Guys in White are looking for you, and you decide to bring a ghost back to your house."

"Yep," was all Dib said.

"Let me go, and I can get us both out of here."

Dib hesitated. "...Okay. But no running off!"

"Wait, who's that?" Danny pointed as best as he could at a small green kid about Dib's height with black hair. Then he recognized it. "That's Zim! The alien!"

Dib grabbed the screen in disbelief. "No way! Zim?! ...Wait, you know he's an alien?" Danny just grinned. Human and half-ghost watched as one the agents showed a badge and the other asked Dib's dad some questions about ghosts and paranormal activities, explaining that Zim had told him about Dib having a ghost with him. "We'd better run," Dib suggested.

"Good idea," Danny agreed.

"Shall we?"

"Of course." Dib pressed the button on his remote, and Danny's cuffs popped open. The ghost boy grabbed Dib by the arms, turned intangible, and shot straight up, startling Gaz as they rocketed through her room and out of the roof. Danny turned and flew to the park, setting Dib down after turning tangible, then landing himself. "That was close," the ghost boy said. Dib nodded, then snapped a ghost-proof cuff onto Danny's wrist, fastening the attached chain around a tree. Danny rolled his eyes. This again. "You know," Danny sighed. "This is getting a bit old."

"What, after only two times?" Dib asked innocently.

Danny gave the short scientist an I'm-not-buying-your-obviously-fake-act look, dug into his pocket, produced one of Jazz's bobby pins, and started picking the lock.

"Right," Dib scoffed. "Like that's gonna - hey! HEY! GET BACK HERE, GHOST! I WASN'T DONE WITH YOU YET!" He scowled, glaring at the rapidly retreating form of Danny Phantom.

oOo

Meanwhile, at the door of the Membrane residence, Zim cackled gleefully to himself. These Guys Who Wear the White-Color (or whatever their stupid earth name was) would definitely arrest - or better, kill - Dib for having a ghost. Then, both stinky slime-weasels would be out of his antennae, leaving the Earth open for conquest! "The tallest will be most pleased," Zim accidentally muttered aloud.

"What did you say?" the darker-skinned White-Wearer asked.

"Er, nothing," Zim smiled an almost-innocent grin that easily fooled the White-Wearers. After all, they were from Amity Park.

oOo

Sam and Tucker zoomed down the streets of !*$^# (!(#%*dh$%&amp;, following the Fenton Booooomerang to Danny, wherever the heck he was. Both were glad they had brought their motorized scooters, because the Booooomerang was not slowing down. Suddenly, the ghost-tracking device beeped, swerving upwards towards a black and white shape in the sky, followed by a distant "oof!".

In the air, Danny held the Booooomerang while rubbing his abdomen. Searching below, he spotted Sam and Tucker, then floated down to them, landing. "Okay, I know you guys needed to find me, but this thing has given me more bruises than actual ghost hunters," he said, slightly irritated.

"Sorry dude," Tucker replied. "But when we found out someone other than Jazz had sucked you into the Thermos, we kinda freaked. If it's any consolation, it was Sam's idea."

"Hey!" the goth girl protested, elbowing the techno-geek in the ribs.

Danny intervened. "Whoever's idea it was, we need to get going. There's a psychotic twelve-year-old PI after me."

"Wait… was it that short kid who interviewed your parents?" Sam inquired, looking a bit more pale than usual.

"Yeah," Danny shrugged. "Why?"

Sam paled even further. "He's our guide around town tomorrow."

oOo

Dib lead the three teens around the nameless town, still a bit sore from losing the ghost kid, but managing to keep a cheerful poker face. "To your right is the Skool," Dib pointed out.

Tucker frowned, squinting. "Didn't they spell "school" wrong?"

"No… wait, maybe… I don't know, it's always been like that." Dib's face clouded with confusion, then cleared as he gestured to the next landmark. "That's the McMeaty's joint," he said. "If you haven't already guessed, they specialize in meat." As they passed it, Tucker made love-sick puppy eyes at it while Sam made just plain sick eyes.

Danny cleared his throat. "So, what's that greenish goo in the bottoms of the windows?" he asked, at first just asking to break the ice but now interested.

Dib's eyes seemed to light up. "That's from when Zim molted, right there in the restaurant! I didn't really get to see it, though, 'cause this guy who calls himself a paranormal investigator just lugged me around town to catch Cocoa Fang, but he's just a cereal box character, and I tried to tell him repeatedly that Zim was an actual alien but he wouldn't listen and attacked the poor guy dressed as Cocoa Fang with a wooden stake and…"

Danny let the kid ramble about the stupidity of the senior investigator and glanced back at his friends. The halfa's look clearly said help me, but the other two teens shrugged, unsure of what to do. Dib kept talking. "... So anyway, yesterday I captured this ghost kid who'd fought Zim, the alien, with this thermos thingy. I guess it only works on ghosts, because I tried to suck Zim into it but I ended up looking stupid." The black-clad kid held up a thermos to Danny, who, of course, already knew was -

"The Fenton Thermos!" Danny exclaimed, snatching the cylindrical device out of Dib's hand.

Dib blinked. "You know what it is?" he inquired, then smacked himself on the forehead. "Duh. Danny _Fenton_, _Fenton_ Thermos."

"So you say you caught a ghost?" the ghost teen asked.

"Yeah, and I interviewed him, but he got away."

"Got away?"

"Some guys wearing white stormed my house. Zim was with them, and I guess he led them there."

"The Guys in White are here?!" Of course, Danny already knew that, but he had to keep at least half of himself off of Dib's radar.

"If that's what they're called, then yes." Dib confirmed. "Why, do they have something against your parents?"

"You could say that."

Tucker piped up. "Speaking of Danny's parents, Dib, you caught a ghost, right?"

"Yeah," Dib nodded.

"Oh man, that's priceless. Danny's parents couldn't catch a ghost if it were living right under their roof!"

Danny glared at the techno geek, knowing the jibe was intentional and aimed at him for more than one reason. "Shut up, Tuck."

**Aaaaaaaand there you have it! Chapter Seven of PI! As you may have noticed, I tried to type the town's name, but I think an Observant possessed my computer or something, because it obviously didn't work. Anywho, my hope is that future chapters in both stories won't take so darned long (cough cough Steve doesn't like that language cough cough cough Avengers cough). Farewell until next time, Historians!**


	8. Invincible

**Hello, faithful fans and welcome to chapter eight of Paranormal Investigation! Speaking of chapters, I'm a bit disappointed that Rapid Eye Movement was so short, but hey, life goes on. Speaking of life, today is my (I don't even know which number I'm on) official day of SUMMER VACATION! WOO! ONWARDS, TO FREEEEEEDOOOOOOOM! BTW, kudos to anyone who can spot the Magic Kaito reference. I'm warning you, it's hidden in plain sight. Seriously, you can see it from here.**

**Chapter Eight**

**Invincible**

"Welcome to Diverse City, we're colorful good, it's like a freak show in your neighborhood!" The song blared out of the ice cream store's radio as the trio sat across from Dib. The juvenile PI was a frequent visitor to this particular store, and had earned a coupon for four free double scoop cones. He frowned slightly, thinking. Why four, and why had the cashier given it to him on the day the Fentons and friends arrived? He looked suspiciously at the smiling old lady behind the counter. Dib had always suspected her of being psychic, and this was helping to confirm it. He turned back to his Blue Birthday Cake and Chocolate Planet ice cream, mentally tucking the "coincidence" away.

Across the table, on the open end of the booth, Danny took note of Dib's analytical gaze. The kid had used the same one on him that first day here. He turned to Sam, who was on his left. "What kind did you get?" He inquired.

"Pomegranate and Black Licorice," She replied happily. "You?"

"NASA Blue Chocolate and Electric Green."

"Electric Green?"

"I have no idea what flavor it is, but if ectoplasm had a flavor and tasted good, this would be it."

"Ooookay then." Sam turned to Tucker, who was on her left. "What about you, Tuck?"

He sighed, in love with the cold treat before him. "Two scoops of heavenly Techno-cherry."

Sam frowned. "That's weird."

"What?" Danny asked, confused. "If it's your ice cream, no one else is gonna want it."

"No, it's not this. Well, it is, but nothing's physically wrong. In fact, it's perfect." She looked at her friends' cones. "Too perfect. It's like these flavors were made for us; NASA Blue Chocolate, Pomegranate, Techno-cherry, even Dib's."

Dib looked at his ice cream. "Chocolate Planet… hey! You're right! That is weird." He glanced at the old lady again, now convinced she had ESP.

Sam spoke up again. "It's not just the ice cream, it's the hotel, too. We picked our rooms at random, right?" The two older boys nodded. Sam shook her head. "Wrong. Now that I think about it, I remember feeling some kind of pull towards that room. Something is definitely going on here." Suddenly, a cold breeze blew through the shop, despite the warm day outside.

Dib winced. "Ms. Bitters…"

The old teacher, wearing in a long black dress and her white hair in a bun, glared at him from behind evil looking tinted glasses. "Calm down, Dib, I'm not here for you." She scowled. "Could you fear a bit more quietly? It's getting on my nerves." Ms. Bitters then pointed a scraggly finger at Danny. "You, boy child. Come with me." Danny swallowed as Sam took his ice cream. He slid out of the booth and followed the bent teacher, who had moved in an impossible black blur to a shadowy booth in the back of the shop. He sat nervously, unsure of what the teacher wanted. Ms. Bitters glanced back at Dib, eyes narrowed, then turned back to the nervous halfa.

"I didn't do it," he blurted, then blinked. "Sorry, natural reaction to teachers."

She waved a hand. "I have a message for you," she rasped. "From Clockwork."

Danny's mouth hung open. "Clockwork?!"

"You think he only works with ghosts? Vampires can do things just as well." She crossed her arms as her scowl deepened.

"Vampires," Danny mouthed. He frowned, looking up. "But the sun…"

Ms. Bitters raised an eyebrow. "You didn't see me steaming when I came in? Teenagers. So unattentive." Now that Danny thought about it, he had seen vapor rising off her back, but had dismissed it as a trick of the light.

"How did you hide it from Crazy McParanoid over there?" the halfa jerked his head towards Dib, who looked like he was trying to send a telepathic message to the nice lady at the counter.

"Oh, that's easy," Ms. Bitters scoffed. "He's so caught up with the Zim child he doesn't have time for an old vampire teaching about doom. Anyway, the message. Clockwork wanted to warn you about Zim; he's very paranoid and will stop at nothing to protect himself. You need to be careful around him, and keep a close eye on your parents."

Danny nodded, processing the information. "Is that all?"

"For now, yes. You may rejoin your friends." Ms. Bitters got up to leave, and Danny quickly followed suit. "And Daniel?" the old teacher called. He turned towards her. "Your dark friend was right. Goths do simmer. But vampires?" she grinned, an _extremely_ rare action that revealed small fangs. "We steam."

oOo

Zim peeked around the corner of the ice cream parlor, chuckling evilly - quietly, but evilly - as he watched the four - no, three and a half _fffffilthy_ humans exit the shop. His next plan involved the one in black, the female. Since confronting the half-ghost was obviously hazardous to his pristine Irken health, he would go for a less direct approach. Still grinning, he ran to a fake storefront, the title of which was labeled "Dark Human Goth Store" and the design much like a stereotypical haunted house. It was actually an old abandoned packing peanut store that used to sell nothing but, well, packing peanuts. Zim had worked all night on the facade outside while a large drill had carved a tunnel from the back of the "store" to his underground base.

His plan was to lure the female to the back of the "store" alone, where he would use his Pak legs and lots of duct tape to cart her back to his base, holding her hostage until the ghost boy and his entourage agreed to leave town. He had put GIR in charge of the decorations inside, and hoped his bumbling robot slave hadn't screwed this simple job up. As he stepped inside, past the bat-shaped OPEN sign, he gasped.

It looked exactly like the goth-human stores he had painstakingly combed the Internet for images of. The walls were dark purple, and the floor was a shiny obsidian black. There were charcoal gray bookshelves towards the back while spike-studded garments and accessories hung gloomily towards the front, as did the few goths in the store. Rushing over to the counter, just to the left of the entrance, he was about to speak to GIR when he did a double take. All the blue parts of GIR's mechanical body were now black, and he had thick eyeliner under his now melancholy eye units, not to mention a fake magnetic lip piercing.

Zim facepalmed, dragging GIR behind the iron counter. "GIR!" the invader whisper-shouted. "I told you to decorate the trap, not open it for business! You idiot, you made it look so real that there are actually…" Zim left off, realizing the brilliance of the "blunder", then started back up again. "... there are actually worm-stinks in here! Ha! Once again, I, ZIM, have hatched an ingenious plan!"

GIR sighed. "But Master, why make a bunch of plans anyway? The humans are full of an inner darkness that must be expressed through their unique opinions. We must rebel against the oppressors who want to dictate our lives and make us 'behave' and be 'socially acceptable' to their stereotypical standards."

Zim blinked, surprised, then rolled his eyes, cursing the dis_gusting_ human hackers who influenced his robot. "If you revert to your usual programming, we can make biscuits," he promised.

GIR's black details returned to blue, and he wiped off the eyeliner and fake piercing as he stared wide-eyed (if not a little moronically) at Zim. "Okey!" he whisper-exclaimed.

Zim peeked out from behind the counter, noting with glee that the female had taken an interest in his "store". Zim cackled. "On second thought GIR, put that "goth" disguise back on, then carry out the plan as usual. The female will soon fall into our trap!"

GIR began to re-apply eyeliner, sighing as his blue details turned black once more. "Whatever, Master."

oOo

Sam saw it as soon as she exited the ice cream parlor; the Dark Human Goth Store. "Finally, something normal," she said, walking towards it, then glanced at the others. "Well, normal for me." She walked inside and beelined for the books, while the boys stood at the entrance, awkwardly. Dib found a conveniently placed book on vampires to his left, while Tucker and Danny started a game of Rock Paper Scissors.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" they chanted.

"Ha!" Tucker exclaimed. "Scissors cut paper!"

"Not if it's ghost paper," Danny said, grinning, after thoroughly checking that Dib was engrossed in his book. He'd seen the same spacey look on Lyle and Mikey in the library.

"Aw, come _on!_" Tucker complained as his fingers repeatedly failed to cut Danny's "paper". Their game was interrupted by a muffled scream from the back of the shop.

"That sounded like Sam!" Danny ran through the gloomy paraphernalia, geek and nerd in tow. They were just in time to see a sighing robot close a floorboard near the wall, then heard him somehow welding the trapdoor shut. The halfa realized that no human was going to get through that door, then nearly growled in frustration at the fact that he couldn't do anything with Dib standing there. Tucker watched his best friend's hands ball into fists, his sky blue eyes flashing toxic green in anger.

"Wait," Dib said, thinking. "That looked like GIR… ohmygosh, what if it was? What if Zim kidnapped Sam? I bet he did… Come on, I know where his base is!" He hesitated, waiting for the Ohio boys to call him crazy, or a freak.

Danny's mouth set into a determined line, saying neither word. "Lead the way," he snarled, and as Dib charged out of the store, Danny and Tucker followed in close pursuit. The half ghost vowed silent vengeance against any alien or robot that dared lay a finger on Sam. His techno-geek friend, seeing the expression on Danny's face, felt immediate pity for anyone standing in the ghost boy's way.

**Aaaaaaaand I'm evil. So evil, in fact, I could possibly join the Evil League of Evil. Anyway, I've taken down REM because I'm rewriting it in a hopefully better version. The first one dissatisfied me greatly. I have also been busy, writing Phantomatronic, a crossover between Magic Kaito and FNaF, watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, and trying to download the Springtrap Finale. Darn you VibeClouds. See you next time in PI, when I hopefully will post things faster! Hi ho, Silver! (Signed, Bad Horse)**

**(Note from future REM: Phantomatronic has burned out. Ignore that comment...)**


	9. Tallest

**Hello everybody, my name is Marrrkiplier and welcome back to another episode of SURGEON SIMULATOR! Just kidding, I'm not as cool as Mark. Anywho, here we are in the NINTH INNING - *gets slapped by Phantom J. w/ a rubber chicken* - NINTH CHAPTER of PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS! So sorry for the wait, but my gnome-obsessed geometry teacher was dead-set on making sure we had enough distance formulas to do. (You Raiders know what I'm talking about.) So, without further ado, ON TO THE CHAPTER!**

**Chapter Nine**

**Tallest**

Sam knew she was in trouble the moment that adorable little robot told her that her favorite book was "under the fake store". She'd followed the thing all the way to the back, passing every bookshelf on the way. The goth started to back away, only to step on something metal that triggered large mechanical arms to wrap around her. She managed to let out a third of a scream before her mouth was blocked by duct tape and she was dragged down a tunnel. The last she saw of the bookstore - no, trap - was the little automaton welding the loose piece of flooring back into place just as three sets of pounding footsteps approached. As they descended into darkness, Sam could barely make out Danny's growling, furious tones. _It would seem,_ she thought, _that whoever just kidnapped me..._

oOo

"... is about to get their sorry butt kicked into the next dimension," Tucker concluded, wheezing slightly from all the dreadful running they were doing. Dib nodded, making a mental note never to get on the bad side of the rage-filled teen in front of them. Danny didn't even seem out of breath, and was leading the trio of boys after Dib had rattled off directions. Finally, they arrived at Zim's base. Danny stormed up to the front gate and was about to enter the yard before Dib stopped him.

"Wait!" the smaller boy tugged back on Danny's arm. "Zim has attack gnomes!" He tossed a small rock onto the lawn, but before it could hit the ground, every gnome in the yard turned and shot it with evil red laser eyes. The little stone floated to its final resting place as dust.

Tuck whistled slowly. "Nice. But I bet it can't withstand the awesome power of good 'ol hand-made-in-Japan tech like…" He paused for effect, index finger twirling over a virtual button on his PDA. He pressed it. "This." The gnomes suddenly linked hands and skipped away, singing like Smurfs. The other two boys applauded as Tucker took a bow, then together they ran to the door. Without missing a step, Danny kicked the entrance down, frightening nerd and geek. The house seemed empty, but Dib scampered over the damaged door and over to a trash can in the kitchen, which oddly enough also had a toilet in it. Dib showed no hesitation in opening the lid and putting a foot on the edge, then looking back at the confused Amity Parkers. He grinned sheepishly. "It's an entrance to his base," the boy explained. "The other one is the toilet."

Danny shrugged. "One man's trash is another man's base, I guess." And with that, the trio leapt into the belly of the beast.

Well, Danny and Dib leapt. Tucker lowered himself cautiously before his arms gave out and he fell the rest of the way.

oOo

Sam was growing increasingly annoyed with the green kid. She was now duct taped quite securely to a wooden chair under a single lightbulb in the middle of some high-tech alien base. It was a bit cliché for her, but she was confident in the fact that if Tucker were here, he would have died and gone to techno-geek heaven. She looked over to where Zim stood, pressing buttons and turning dials and pulling levers, busy with some kind of work. "The gnomes," he muttered. "How did they get past the gnomes…"

Suddenly, there was a rustling, banging sound coming from a port hole in the ceiling. Zim paled - well, it was more like turning a lighter shade of green - and he dove behind a bank of computers. The noise drew nearer and Dib fell out of the opening, landing and stumbling forward a bit, followed by Danny, who absorbed the shock with bent knees and used the potential energy for a shoulder roll, landing in a crouch. There was fire and brimstone in his eyes until they landed on her.

"Sam!" he cried happily, running forward as Tucker dropped out of the hole, crashing in a face-first belly-flop. Danny, after confirming that there wasn't a scratch on Sam, went around to the back of the chair to assess the, well, _sticky_ situation. He looked over the goth's shoulder, confirming that Dib was focused on helping Tucker up, and shot a small ecto-ray at the tape with a pointer finger. The ghost boy was only halfway down the silver binding when something big, solid, and metallic hit him from the side, sending him into a wall covered in cables. It was Zim at the helm of a huge Irken war-bot, his malevolent grin beaming through its glass dome. Danny picked himself up and nearly morphed, catching himself in time as he noticed the glint of glasses to the side.

The alien laughed. "Go ahead, ghost-filth," he smirked. "The Dib-weasel will be more than happy to have a look at your innards on an autopsy table."

Our protagonist winced. "Who writes your dialogue?" he said, launching a brave kick at the mech. Its pilot, however, had other plans. Zim grabbed Danny by the leg and slammed him into the floor. As the halfa struggled to rise, his otherworldly adversary planted a metal foot on his torso, stopping him. Danny gripped the "toes" of the bot on either side of his shoulders, trying in vain to lift the circular foot.

"Say goodbye to your fffffffilthy ball of dirt, human!" Zim cackled, aiming a crackling energy beam at Danny's head.

**WEEEEEE'VE COME TO FAAAAAAR, TO GIVE UUUUUUUUP WHO WE AAAAAAAAAARE! *coughs* You were done early. *looks up at chapter* I guess it was pretty short. Not much room to stop your momentum before that cliffhanger. Anywho, I'll see YOU… in the next video. BUH-BYYE! **

***all Mark quotes belong to Mark, DP and IZ belong to Mr. Hartman and Mr. Vasquez respectively.***


	10. No Rest (for the weary)

**Summer vacation. Finally. I've been waiting all year for this moment. *inhales loudly through nose* Thanks so much for making it to this chapter. I apologize profusely for my past self and all the bad AN's I tried to write in an attempt to sound cool. Good grief, I hope this story gets better as I progress. Hopefully my creative writing class will help out, and this story will actually flow better. Wish me luck, and thanks again! - REM **

**P.S. I know I cheated on this chapter title. Deal with it. ;P**

**Chapter Ten**

**No Rest (for the weary)**

Danny Fenton stared directly into the energy beam leveled at his head. It was all he could do, really. One can't do much when trapped under the foot of a giant alien war robot. He turned his face away, eyes closed, waiting for Zim to fire.

Instead, there was a loud, metallic _KA-PONG! _closely followed by the sound of something splintering. Danny felt the foot lift off of him, and he scrambled into a kneeling position, looking up to see the bot staggering backwards with a small dent in its side. The halfa's gaze drifted to the side, where he witnessed Samantha Manson wielding the remains of the chair she'd been tied to like a battle ax, terrified nerds in the background. The seat of the chair was half gone, and the legs were completely demolished. The only evidence of the chair's existence as a whole piece of furniture were a few scattered splinters and chunks of wood. Judging by the wild look in Sam's eyes paired with her heavy breathing, Danny guessed that she had torn out of the rest of the duct tape and, fueled by adrenaline, whacked Zim's mech in its metal rib cage with the chair.

"Sam!" he called. She dropped her battle chair and psychotic expression, jogging over and helping him to his feet.

"Are you okay?" she asked, gripping his shoulders, concerned.

He grinned lopsidedly. "I'm fine." Danny glanced from the battle mech to the boys on his left. "Get Tuck and Dib out of here." he told Sam. "I'm not going to let some crazy alien kid waste me because I can't go ghost." Sam nodded once, then firmly instructed the two geeks to get their butts up that elevator over there or she would use her chair skills on them. Tucker made a mad dash for the nearby shaft, not wanting to face goth fury, but Dib tried to stay behind.

"What about Danny?" he protested.

Sam locked her fingers in a firm grip on his arm, steering him into the elevator. "Danny will be fine," she said. "He'll meet us on the surface." As the platform began its climb, Dib tried to watch the fight, and before he lost sight of Danny, he could've sworn two white circles formed around the Amity teen's waist.

oOo

Danny watched the elevator ascend, morphing once he couldn't see any curious faces. He turned back to the now-recovered Zim, toxic green eyes challenging the invader to dare to attack.

He dared.

As soon as Zim moved so much of an inch, the ghost boy slammed into the mech's chest, flying at full speed. The bot toppled, landing on its backside as Zim furiously wrestled with the controls. The alien's fumbling was only a bluff, however, and as Danny came in for another attack, Zim swung the mech's metal fist at Danny, catching him in the side. Zim snatched the dazed halfa out of the air, pinning Danny's arms. Danny struggled, attempting to faze out of the massive hand but going nowhere.

Zim grinned. "Do you like my upgrades? I modified this particular mech so that you couldn't cheat. No more floating through walls, half-breed!"

"I'm a halfa," Danny corrected, "And you should really have done more research on ghosts!" The half-ghost closed his eyes, concentrating on his ecto-shield, then forcing it outwards, shattering the mech's fist and sending Zim staggering back in a shockwave of sorts. The alien retaliated by sending a volley of blasts at the ghost boy. Danny expertly dodged them, sending back a few shots of his own, his ghostly tail appearing as he hit some of his highest speeds. He laughed, then realized his overconfidence too late as Zim began to fire in front of him, attempting to use the ghost boy's inertia against him. A few rounds and frantic direction changes later, a blast clipped Danny's forearm, sending pain rocketing around the ghost's nerves. Danny landed, kneeling and gripping his arm.

Zim smiled a cold, toothy smile. "Filthy human. You are no match for the mighty technology of ZIM!"

Danny grinned in spite of his wound, filling the extraterrestrial with a sense of unease. He stood wordlessly, conserving energy. He released his arm, which was oozing green ectoplasm, then drew a deep breath.

Zim had never heard such an unholy wail in his life. It shattered the mech's bulletproof glass dome and forced the bot into the opposite wall. Zim pressed his antennae to his head, digging his claws into his flesh. The wail seemed to fill his entire body, invading his very thoughts.

Finally, it stopped. Danny dropped to his knees once more, confident that the alien wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, and morphed back to a human, passing out cold on the concrete, his green wound now red.

oOo

Meanwhile, on the surface, Dib fidgeted on the front step of Zim's "house". Tucker sat next to him, searching for comfort on his PDA, while Sam paced on the lawn. Suddenly, the ground shook beneath them, accompanied by the muffled thunder of explosions. There was silence for a few moments, followed by what sounded like a banshee had wandered into the alien's basement and Zim managed to tick it off. Sam and Tucker started towards the front door, but when Dib tried to follow, Sam turned on her heel, pointing her finger in his face and firmly growling, "Stay here." Dib gulped and stayed put, pretending not to be reluctant so the scary goth girl from Ohio would get out of his face. Said goth girl joined her geeky companion once more as they dropped into the bowels of the alien lair.

The instant Sam hit the ground, she rocketed towards Danny. Tucker had the passing notion of making a best-friend-tracking system named after her, but being more concerned for his own best friend, he dismissed the thought. Danny was down for the count on the floor. His arms and torso were laced with minor lacerations, his shirt was torn in some places, and a gash on his right arm dotted the concrete with blood.

"Oh my gosh…" Sam gasped. She grabbed Tucker's backpack, rummaging through the tech as Tucker flailed helplessly. She yanked a small first-aid kit and a water bottle from the olive pack triumphantly, then popped the kit open, producing both a roll and a box of bandages. She unscrewed the bottle's cap, gently drizzling water over Danny's arm wound, then wrapped it tightly using the bandage roll. Next, Sam used a cotton ball from the kit to dab at the several scrapes with water (for lack of rubbing alcohol), sticking Band-Aids of various sizes over them.

At the precise moment she finished, Danny shifted, groaning. He tried rolling over to the right, grimaced, then decided to roll to the left instead. He stared at the ceiling for a minute, blinking a couple times before registering his friends. "Hi," he grinned weakly.

"Hi yourself," Sam frowned, checking for any missed scratches. "I'm not a medical student, Danny. You can't keep doing this to yourself."

Danny struggled to sit, and Tucker helped him up gently. "I would say something about Sam just being worried, but I'm with her on this one, dude. You gotta be more careful," the geek said, shaking his head. "How are we gonna explain a million bandages and a huge burn to your mom?"

Danny winced, testing sore limbs. "I don't know. I'll just tell her I… tripped, or something."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Off a cliff?"

"Into a campfire?" Tucker added.

Danny shrugged helplessly.

"Speaking of burn wounds, why wasn't yours cauterized? The laser should have sealed the wound." Sam wondered aloud.

The trio glanced at the fallen alien mech. "A laser that cuts and burns," Tucker said. "That's some scary tech."

"C'mon, we should get out of here before Zim wakes up," Danny said, attempting to stand. His friends stabilized him, each taking an arm over a shoulder, but before they could exit the lair, a small figure blocked their way.

oOo

Dib had been growing restless on the surface. Sam had locked the door behind her to make sure the paranoid paranormal investigator wouldn't follow, and it was too quiet outside of the chunky green house. In his solitude, Dib began to pace and ponder his past couple of days of parading the Amity teens around his town. The more he thought, the more he realized that he should really be down in that basement right about now. Wait… that thought hadn't sounded quite right…

_Oh well,_ he shrugged mentally. _It's probably not important._ He raced to the door, attempting a kick as Danny had done, earning a sore foot in the process. Fortunately, GIR had heard him and swung the door open eagerly, the eyes of his dog costume pointing away from each other.

"Are you the pizza man?!" he shrieked.

Dib blinked. "Uh… sure…"

"YAAAAAY!" GIR screamed, running into the house. Dib followed him, sneaking past to the kitchen, but froze when he heard "WAIT!" GIR shot past him, blocking the trash can. He pointed to the toilet, smiling and saying, "Use that one!" Dib climbed into the commode, feeling very odd as GIR flushed him into the base. He descended on a platform to the main lair where the fight had taken place. Sam and Tucker were helping Danny to his feet, and almost made it to another elevator when Dib stood in their way. He looked down at the floor, trying to hide the twisted glee he felt at having beaten their little game.

"So," he began, mastering the tones of a worried friend.

"Buttons," Danny replied jokingly, then paled as Dib's crooked grin forced its way to his lips, realizing his grave mistake.

Dib looked up. "Gotcha."

**In the words of Belt the sloth, "DA DA DAAAAAAAA!" I know this took me forever and a day to write, but I've been tangled up in mangled up knots recently with this thing called life. I'm hoping for a faster chapter next time but WHO KNOWS? I also apologize again for recent chapters and the notes left at the end of them. Good gravy, I sounded so dumb… *winces all the way to Awkwardville, population me* See ya in chapter 11, hopefully. - REM**


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